Method of making storage-battery separators



.3. FORD- ANDE, w. SMITH.

METHOD OF MAKING STORAGE BATTERY SEPARATORS.

APPLICA TIOH FILED FEB ZB, I918- Patnted Jan. 4,1921.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BRUCE FORD AND EDWA BD WANTON SMITH, OI PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

METHOD KAKING STORAGE-BATTERY SEPABATOBS.

Patented Jan. 4, 1921.

Application filed February28, 1918. Serial Io. 219,577.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, BRUCE Form and EDWARD WA N'roN SMITH, citizens of the United States, and residents of Philadelhia, in the county of Philadelphia and tate of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Making Storage-Battery Separators, of which the following is a specification.

The principal object of the present Invention is to provide an expeditious, rehable and comparatively simple method of makingseparators or retainers for the plates of secondar or storage batteries.

Accor ing to our invention a sheet or wall is slitted or gashed, or has pieces punched out of it to make openings, and

4 the bars between these slits or openings are contracted by elongation to permanently separate the edges of the slits or enlarge the openings.

The invention will be claimed at the end hereof, but will be first described in connection with the accompanying drawings, forming part hereof, and in which Figures 1 and 2, are a top and a sectional view of a slitted sheet or wall showing bars between and parallel with the slits.

Figs. 3'and 4, are similar views showing the wall after the bars have been contracted by elongation, thus opening the .slits;

Figs. 5 and 6 are a top and sectional view of a wall or sheet having openings orined by the removal of some of the material of which it is composed. v

Figs. 7 and 8 are like views of the sheet shown inFigs; 5 and 6, after the openings have been enlarged by contracting the bars or material between them by elongation, and

Figs. 9 and 10, are side views of a tubular separator or retainer and of them, Fig. 9 shows the'separator ready for treatment .by the process of the invention, and Fig.

10 shows the separator complete with, its

slits or openings enlarged.

'made by; the removal of some of the matelarged condition. This material may be celluloid, hard rubber or lead, and its thickness is that appropriate for separators and retainers. In the case of lead the article is perhaps more of a retainer than a separator. 2, are a series of arallel slits shown as arranged in rows, with bars 3.between them. 4, may be referred to as blanks between the ends of the slits of the respective rows. The bars are'contracted by elongation into the form diagrammatically represented at 3 in Figs. 3 and 4, with the result that the slits or openings are enlarged, as shown at 2", Figs. 3 and 4. This result can be accomplishedby passing the sheet of Figs. 1 and 2 through stretching rolls in a dlrection crosswise of the drawing, or the sheet can be otherwise stretched in that direction.

The above description a plies to the other figures, except that in holes or openings 2" are not slits but are rial of the wall, as by punching or drilling, and the bars 3" are elongated as by passing through rolls-pr. stretching so that in the finished product, Figs. 7 and 8, the openings are elongated and enlarged as shown at 2 and the bars are stretched as shown at 3.

In Fig. 9 the separator or retainer is tubular, but such articles have heretofore been either flat, tubular or' of other form, so that the present invention is concerned with the manufacture of the openings rather than with the shape of the separator or retainer and openings made by the processof'this. invention may be made of any suitable size, from comparatively long and very narrow up to any required dimensions. I

In'Fig. 9, slits 2 are shown but instead of mere slits some of the 'material can be removed, as has been described in connection with Fig. 5. The slitted tube of Fi 9 is enlarged radially and circumferenti y as by a stretching or an expanding mandrel so that the bars 3 between the slits are congacteg b elongation ashindicatefd it 3' in ig.1 usincreasingt eareao t eopenings 2', as indicated .in Fig. 10. I

-The initial slits or openings need not be arrangedinrowgbutmayberedand 5 and 6, the

both of these plans are illustrated in the tainers for storage batteries Which consists drawings. For stretching or rolling, the in making openings in a Wall or sheet, and 10 material may be heated to render it more elongating the openings and contracting the plastic. If the material is vulcanized rubbars between the openings by permanently 5 ber it may be convenient to stretch or roll stretching the material of the sheet, subit before vulcanizing. stantially as described.

What We claim is Y BRUCE FORD.

The method of making separators or re- EDWARD WANTON SMITH. 

